Wednesday, August 11, 2021

Gigil #PandemicEffect: Belo ad criticized for body shaming and insensitivity



Wazzup Pilipinas!?

OMFG! Sobrang insensitive ng bagong @belobeauty and @GigilGroup na #PandemicEffect ad. Hindi ito nireview man lang? Sobrang out of touch neto and should've stayed in the drafts. Promoting body shaming?

Whoever conceptualized the #PandemicEffect ad for Belo should have a thorough evaluation of themselves--- or kung hindi sa kanya, a thorough evaluation of their target consumers. Napaka tone deaf.  

Belo's newest ad is making us ask: Why are you shaming women into conforming to beauty standards during a *pandemic*?

The Belo Medical Group was criticized for a video ad portraying a woman who "let herself go" during the pandemic. They said the ad was "just a reminder...that if you’re ready to make the decision to take care of yourself again, we are here to help."

Why do we have this kind of ad when we’re in the middle of pandemic… when our livelihoods are threatened and our family and friends are either dying or in grave danger.

While I get the insighting behind this, the ad became distasteful & insensitive because of how the messaging was presented. The #PandemicEffect has been real and serious, and it shouldn’t be trivialized. For a lot of people, this meant losing jobs and loved ones.

It’s done in poor taste :( #PandemicEffect pls do better.


 

I can really think of nothing more sinister than capitalizing on how one’s physical appearance naturally changes during a pandemic or what Belo dubs as the “#PandemicEffect” being synonymous with the “ugliest versions of ourselves”. Poorly done on production team’s end + on Belo.

the #PandemicEffect not only affected our physical health but our mental health as well, felt like those with depression and hormonal disorders (eg. PCOS) have been mocked by this ad, which aims to capitalize on insecurities. how was this approved in the first place,?? in 2021???

The pandemic is stressful enough as it is and preying on consumers’ insecurities isn’t helping either. To paraphrase and add to the words of the beautiful @143redangel—“Ang katawan at ang mukhang ito ay marami nang pinagdaanan”.

We should celebrate the fact that we have remained healthy despite and in spite of the pandemic. We can advocate for self-care and healthy living without preying on skin-deep insecurities. This is what the #PandemicEffect should be all about.

Hello @belobeauty and @GigilGroup, I hope you realize how absolutely out of touch, tasteless, and insensitive that recent ad is. Not only does it send the complete opposite message of what your PR says the ad intended to, it also ignores what the "#PandemicEffect" is for many.

The #PandemicEffect is our highest rates of unemployment, vaccine inequality, etc. but no you had to sell your product by positioning a woman who’s grown out her body hair as representative of all this, who also holds responsibility to make herself beautiful in the face of it all.

People lost jobs. Businesses went bankrupt. Most countries went on recession. Family and friends died. Others succumbed to mental illness. Lives were permanently changed. That is the real #PandemicEffect.

Not that you got fat and if you did there is nothing wrong with that.


You can promote self-care without (1) exploiting insecurities and (2) trivializing the #PandemicEffect, which affected our lives in ways we never have imagined. @belobeauty's ad just mocked, even invalidated, our struggles of surviving this pandemic. So out of touch, disgusting.

To the creatives and marketing management of Belo, we're sorry but no one fell for your crap. The #PandemicEffect is natural, acne, body hair, losing/gaining weight etc. is all natural. Stop profiting from our insecurities! 

The #PandemicEffect is people losing their loved ones, their jobs, their livelihoods, their homes, their friends.

The #PandemicEffect is also losing so many of the coping mechanisms that could have helped people pull through.

But we're all stuck that's the #PandemicEffect.

This won't hurt their sales anyway. People who are privileged enough will still choose to to avail their services, and tayo? magsa-suffer na lang sa #PandemicEffect

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